It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Finally, we have some colder weather. For a week or so there I felt like I was living in Hawaii. The temperatures were in the high 70's to low 80's every day. Thankfully, Old Jack Frost blew some arctic air in our direction. I can only hope it holds out for Christmas. It's a little difficult to get into the Christmas spirit wearing shorts and running the air conditioner. Of course there are many people who disagree with me and love having the warm weather.

This past weekend we went to my Grandmother's house to celebrate our family Christmas. We exchanged presents with my Aunt and Uncle and my grandmother on Saturday. Haley got a lot of art supplies and an easel, Holden got some camping stuff, The Dangerous Book for Boys, and some Gameboy games and Harrison got a cowboy outfit and a Power Rangers Megazord.

Then on Sunday, our extended family got together for Christmas dinner at my grandmother's house. As usual there was no shortage of food.

Monday was Harrison's Christmas party. They had lunch provided by the parent's and then exchanged presents with their "secret Santa". Amazingly enough, they all kept who they had a secret. Harrison got a Hot Wheels car launcher which was right up his alley.

On Monday, Holden and his class had pajama day and watched The Polar Express. Tuesday was Holden's Christmas party at school. I volunteered to bring cookies so I asked Holden what he wanted. He didn't ask for chocolate chip or peanut butter or sugar cookies. He wanted Gingerbread cookies. So I spent several hours Monday night baking and decorating them for him. I was quite pleased with how they turned out. So much in fact that I think I will be making a batch for our family and some of the neighbors.
Here are the links for the recipes I used in case you are interested. The only thing I did differently was substitute a 1/4 tsp. ground cloves for part of the ginger. You will also want to flour your surface generously before rolling out the dough as it is pretty sticky. And they rise a lot so be sure to leave plenty of room between them.

Gingerbread People
Royal Icing